Page 11 - Sphere No.5 (Feb 2002)

business scene are also popular.
Moguls, who are usually in great
demand for their business insights,
chat about everything but business “on
the other side of the microphone”.
BRIGHT IDEA
The idea of launching a radio version
of popular 24-hour financial TV chan-
nels was born out of a conversation
in the summer of 2000 between
Hutchison Whampoa Group Managing
Director Canning Fok and Metro
Broadcast CEO Kam Kwok-leung.
They spotted a gap in the market
nobody in Hong Kong broadcasting
had attempted to fill—a channel in
which serious financial news is deliv-
ered in a fast, accurate and entertain-
ing way. Metro Finance was also a
timely introduction by the ten-year-old
Metro Broadcast, which also runs
Metro Showbiz (FM99.7 – 102.1) and
Metro Plus (AM1044). After the con-
versation had taken place, everything
else happened at lightening speed.
Kam flew to Toronto himself to recruit
seasoned media man Sung Man-hei as
the channel’s Chief Operating Officer.
“I arrived in Hong Kong on
October 31, 2000 and started working
the next day. I was the only employee
then,” Sung recalls. “I scratched my
instantly. Besides being a very conve-
nient medium for the audience, who
can listen to the news without having
to read or watch, broadcasters can
turn information around far more
quickly than print or TV journalists.
When news breaks, it can be inserted
into a programme at any moment
without the time-consuming need to
go to print or edit video footage.
The station was among the first to
report the September 11 attacks in the
US, and also provided overnight cov-
erage of the New York Stock Exchange
when it opened four days later.
Senior government officials in
Hong Kong, such as Chief Secretary
Donald Tsang and Financial Secretary
Antony Leung, also paid courtesy calls
to Metro Finance after their policy
speeches, ahead of the other media.
Trading action does not cease just
because the Hong Kong market is
closed. Investors nowadays recognise
no borders or time zones, putting their
money wherever opportunity beck-
ons, so Metro Finance’s round-the-
clock operations offer them a strong
advantage. Presenters and journalists
are on duty at the studio night and day
to report the latest stock movements,
keeping investors up-to-date with the
action in the US, Europe and the rest
head at that time, wondering how I’d
be able to get a channel up and run-
ning in a few short months.”
Fortunately for Sung, the burst of
the dotcom bubble had liberated
many experienced journalists onto the
market, and he snapped up many of
them for the new channel.
Metro Finance’s winning formula
goes beyond just reporting financial
news. It is consistently the first among
all the media outlets to bring breaking
financial news to the public. By its
very nature, radio is a medium well
suited to delivering information almost
...consistently
the first
among the
media outlets
to br ing
breaking
financial news ...
MILTONWONG